Kandyan Dancers in the Annual Perahera festivitiesIn the picturesque hills of the Central Province of Sri Lanka lies Kandy, the last capital of the Lankan kings. Here, an annual national festival of great magnitude and magnificence, the kandy Perahera, combines religious, cultural, and historical aspects. It is also known as the Sri Dalada Maligawa Perahera; perahera signifies “a procession,” and Dalada Maligava means “Temple of the Sacred Tooth.”
The history of this festival dates back to the fourth century CE, when King Kithsiri Megawanna received from India the Sacred Tooth, a relic of Buddha, and placed it in a casket logged in an edifice built in the third century BCE by King Devanampiyatissa, who made Buddhism the national religion of Sri Lanka. This relic became the symbol of monarchy and was venerated to invoke blessings on the king and his people. A king-elect had to pay homage to this shrine before being crowned.
The Mahavansa, an ancient chronicle, records that King Kithsiri decreed that the sacred tooth be taken around his capital city of Anuradhapura once a year in a great festival. This decree was faithfully adhered to by succeeding kings, as the fifth-century Chinese traveler Faxian confirmed. Once Anuradhapura was replaced as the capital by Polonnaruwa and then by the regional capital Kandy, it is doubtful whether the procession continued to be held annually.
The Esala Perahera, as we know it today-which combines the Buddhist rite
with the four Hindu devale peraheras -was inaugurated in 1775 by King Kithsiri Rajasingha. At that time the Sacred Tooth relic was to be carried at the head of the devale processions, but today it is replaced by a duplicate of the casket, which contains a few lesser relics.
The Esala Perahera is held in the lunar month of July-August. On the day following the new moon in July, an Esala tree is cut and kept planted as a vow that the perahera will be held. Owing to an overlay of Hindu influences, the processions now are confined for five days within the precincts of the four Hindu devales, or temples. On the fifth night, the four peraheras emerge into the street and combine with the Maligawa Perahera at the entrance to the Maligawa. The Randoli Perahera, which is the main one, is named after the randoli, the golden palanquins in which the queen and the monarch’s concubines formerly brought up the rear, adding luster to the pageant. The four golden palanquins now represent the four devales.
Dressed in a magnificent costume, the Nilanic places the casket on the howdah on the back of the Temple Tusker, a majestic elephant. Richly caparisoned, it moves to the rhythm of the music, walking on a white cloth (pavada), which is spread for it as a mark of respect to the relics.
The procession is flanked by dancers of several traditional schools: Ves dancers, wearing elaborate headdresses and breastplates of multicolored beads: uddekki dancers; pantheru dancers; and naiyandi dancers, who perform in the Visnu (Vishnu) and Kataragama devales.
This awe-inspiring procession, with more than a hundred elephants, wends its way through the streets for five nights. It concludes with a day perahera and water cutting ceremony in the Mahaveli River. The perahera then breaks up, and cache devale procession goes back to its respective devale.
Ranfer Travels Sri Lanka organizers a range of tours and packages for this most important festival of Sri Lanka each year. If you are keen on visiting Sri Lanka during this time and would like us to organize and pre-arrange your Kandyan Perahera Tour Package , please contact us ontravel@ranfertravels.com
